Silicon nanowire metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors

Silicon nanowire photodetectors were fabricated for large area digital imaging applications. An array of silicon nanowires fabricated by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) was incorporated into lateral metalsemiconductor- metal (MSM) photodetectors with 2 μm electrode spacing. A collection efficiency of up to 0.36 and responsivity of 0.136 was measured using an applied bias of -10V. The rise time in response to a blue LED light source was measured to be 35.2 μs.